Category: Economy

Nov 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s budget performance for the first eight months of the year is broadly on track though a gap between revenues and current spending has overshot the the full year target, official data show. The revenue deficit in the budget which involves cash items such as salaries puts pressure on […]

Nov 01, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka can gain as much as 1.5 percent of gross domestic product in revenue by limiting tax holidays, and also cut tax rates if the base is broadened, an International Monetary Fund review has said. China had a standard rate of 17 percent and got 5.8 percent. Sri Lanka […]

Oct 29, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has settled high cost overdrafts from commercial banks and central bank credit taken to bridge the budget deficit with proceeds of a Euro bond which had contributed to excess reserves in the banking system, officials said. Record excess liquidity in the banking system which topped 80 billion rupees […]

Oct 29, 2010 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government is seeking to increase revenue for its cash-strapped Treasury by jacking up taxes on cigarettes and liquor, days ahead of the presentation of its annual budget, officials said. The tax on cigarettes has been raised by a rupee and that on a litre of 100 percent […]

Oct 29, 2010 (LBO) – Consumer prices in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo rose 6.6 percent in October from a year earlier, accelerating from 5.8 percent in September, the government’s statistics office said. It was the sixth straight monthly increase in inflation and was driven largely by price increases in food and beverages. During October prices […]

Oct 29, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan economist and opposition United National Party lawmaker Harsha De Silva has defended his criticism of government policy, saying efforts to tarnish critics were uncalled for. The newspaper said some of the recipients of the emailed note were “furious over the call for the elimination of so called ‘traitors’ […]

Oct 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka exports grew 7.0 percent to 760.3 million US dollars in August 2010, with industrial exports up 7. 8 percent to 574 million dollars though apparels continued to weaken, official data showed. Imports were up 36.9 percent to 8,669 million US dollars with consumer goods up 45.1 percent to […]

Oct 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s listed LOLC group and Browns Investments, a private firm, have bought into the island’s Sierra group which has interests in construction, cable manufacturing and fertilizer in a 1.6 billion rupee deal. LOLC, a financial firm had earlier also bought a hotel group. The two firms had bought a […]

Oct 28, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has higher than ‘optimum’ foreign reserves, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said as a wide interest rate differential with the island’s anchor currency, official borrowings and International Monetary Fund injections boosted reserves. As long as sterilization continues (rupee injections), economic participants get unlimited ammunition to hit the exchange […]

Oct 27, 2010 (LBO) – A call by a stockbroking firm to immediately identify and eliminate “traitors” who may question a “noble” government goal of making the “motherland” a financial hub of South Asia, has stirred up a storm, a media report said. Sri Lanka’s Daily FT business daily said the call was contained in […]

Oct 27, 2010 (LBO) – A report on reforms to Sri Lanka’s complex national and regional taxes has recommended using information technology to make it easier to charge and pay taxes, a statement from the president’s office said. The report by the presidential commission on taxation was handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa Tuesday after […]

Oct 27, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has marginally improved its score in a global corruption index but governance is still so bad that it ranks among other countries seen to be very corrupt, a statement said. “The score indicates that these countries continue to have a serious corruption problem in their public sector.” In […]